Overview of the Guide
This guide is intended to provide useful tools for individuals and organisations seeking to mobilise and
strengthen community-led care for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). It is based on an OVC
programming strategy developed by World Vision, an international Christian relief and development
organisation. This strategy emerged from World Vision’s experience in OVC programming over more
than a decade, combined with careful examination of many other organisations’ approaches to OVC
care. World Vision’s OVC programming strategy is guided by and aligned with the global Framework
for the Protection, Care and Support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living in a World with HIV and
AIDS, developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with input from World Vision and
a wide range of other stakeholders.
This guide is composed of two units. Unit 1 is a resource for mobilisers of community-led OVC care.
Unit 2 is a resource for facilitators who lead training to strengthen the range of capacities needed by
community members caring for OVC. Most of these mobilisers and training facilitators work for
national or international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith-based and other civil society
organisations, or government agencies. This guide may also be used by people living in communities
caring for OVC, to help in catalysing and strengthening a broader community response.
The Crisis of Orphans and Vulnerable Children
HIV/AIDS has created a humanitarian and development crisis of unprecedented scale. More than
15 million children under the age of 17, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, have lost one or both
parents to AIDS. This number is expected to increase to more than 25 million by the year 2010.
In addition, millions more children have been made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These
include children living with HIV, children whose parents are living with HIV, and children in households
that have absorbed orphans.
Children orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS face a wide array of severe and interlinked problems.
In addition to the deep psychosocial distress of losing one or both parents, they may also lack food,
shelter, clothing, or health care. They may be required to care for chronically ill adults or younger
siblings and forced to drop out of school. They may face discrimination, abuse, or exploitation.
Deprived of parental guidance and protection and in need of financial and emotional support, they
may themselves become vulnerable to HIV infection.
In many communities, traditional ways of caring for orphans and vulnerable children, such as the
extended family system, are being severely strained by the multiple, mutually exacerbating impacts
of HIV/AIDS. The critical challenge is to find ways to help communities care for the unprecedented
number of children and families rendered vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Introduction^1